PCI DSS Compliance
PCI DSS scoping starts with knowing where your cardholder data actually lives
Most organisations approach a PCI DSS assessment with a rough idea of where cardholder data should be. QSAs require proof of where it actually is. Those two things are rarely the same.
Cardholder data spreads silently. A finance team saves a spreadsheet with PAN data to a shared drive. A customer service rep forwards payment details by email. An archived system retains transaction records from a project that finished three years ago. Every one of these expands your cardholder data environment, increases your compliance scope, and creates a finding your QSA will flag.
GuardWare DISCOVER PCI was built specifically for this problem. It scans your entire environment agentlessly, finds PAN, CVV, and cardholder data wherever it sits, and produces the ranked evidence report your QSA needs to define and reduce your scope.
The challenge
Scope creep is the biggest PCI DSS risk most organisations don’t see.
PCI DSS v4.0 requires organisations to define and maintain the scope of their cardholder data environment. That scope can only be defined from evidence. Without a systematic scan of every environment where cardholder data might exist — M365, file shares, endpoints, email, legacy archives, cloud platforms — the scope definition is a guess.
Guesses fail QSA assessments. Evidence does not.
How GuardWare solves it
GuardWare DISCOVER PCI connects to your environment without agents, without disruption, and without moving any data. It scans files, text, and images across every connected repository, identifies cardholder data using rule-based detection, and produces a ranked exposure report showing exactly what was found, where it lives, who owns it, and what needs to be addressed first.
Setup takes two hours. The report is ready to hand to your QSA.
The Outcome
- A complete, evidence-based map of where cardholder data sits across your environment
- Reduced PCI DSS scope by identifying and removing cardholder data from out-of-scope systems
- A ranked remediation plan so your team knows what to address first
- Documented evidence your QSA can review directly
- Decentralised remediation alerts to data owners, so action happens at the source
- Compliance reporting ready for ISO 27001, GDPR, and Privacy Regulations alongside PCI DSS
Together, the suite gives you control end to end.
Locate
Scans M365 email, SharePoint, OneDrive, Windows, Linux, cloud platforms, file shares, and legacy archives. Identifies PAN, CVV, and cardholder data using rule-based classification. No local agent required for most environments.
Investigate
Every finding shows ownership, sensitivity level, creation date, email context, and file attributes. You know exactly what was found, where it lives, and who is accountable.
Remediate
Classify, delete, or move cardholder data. Decentralised remediation alerts go directly to data owners. Your compliance team oversees without doing all the work.
- 2 hours to set up a DISCOVER PCI Proof of Value.
- Agentless scanning — no software to install on most systems.
- Covers M365, SharePoint, OneDrive, Windows, Linux, cloud platforms, file shares, and legacy archives
Products used: GuardWare DISCOVER PCI, GuardWare DISCOVER
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